1. Content: Students should show
familiarity with major concepts, theoretical perspectives and empirical
findings as related to the course.

2. Communication Skills: Students
should demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills.

3. Research Skills: Students
should have an understanding of basic research skills and be able to apply
analytical and research skills in written assignments for the course.

4. Critical Thinking: Students
should use critical thinking and skeptical inquiry in problem solving.

Required Texts:

Managing Local Government: Cases in Decision Making
(Second Edition), by James M. Banovetz.

The Modern Theory of Political Bureaucracy: An
Intellectual History of U.S. Public Administration in the Post-New-Deal Era,
By Paul J. Culhane.

Supplemental Readings:

When Appropriate, any such readings will be made available
in the Reserve Room at Founders Library.

Pop Quizzes, Midterm and Final Examinations:

The Instructor reserves the right to have pop quizzes at any
time and at his own discretion.There
will be a midterm and a final exam in this class.These will be take-home tests, and will likely consist of short
answer and essay questions.The final
exam will be comprehensive.They are
due at the beginning of the specified class period.Your Instructor has found over time that the take-home format
works well.It alleviates test anxiety
and gives the student time to compose a superior examination.Since the student is free to use any
available resource, suitably noted, there is really no reason that every test
should not be graded as an A+.Sadly,
some students fail to appropriately seize the opportunities presented by this
testing regimen.The advantage of these
examinations for your Instructor is that he gets readable text with literate
answers to the essay and short answer questions.He is not forced to try to decipher illegible scrawls on the
pages of moldy blue books.However,
this particular format requires that a student be literate and a competent
writer.Amazingly, these are the same
requirements that most of your future employers will have for you.This is a good training opportunity.There are few of us who cannot benefit from
the services of a good editor.Seldom
do we catch our own writing mistakes.So, make use of the writing clinics in the residence halls, or other
venues.Have a friend read over and
correct your tests and papers before you hand them in.Make needed corrections.This same advice applies to the case study
papers, too.

Case Studies:

Each Case Study Paper is your analysis of a case study in Managing
Local Government: Cases in Decision Making, by James M. Banovetz.You are to select a case presented in the
Banovetz textbook, excepting only Case Studies 1 and 21 which will be presented
in the class by the Instructor, according to your interests. Each paper
should be no more than 5 pages in length.If you quote something from the case study verbatim, you should cite it
according to author and page number. You should discuss the background
information of each selected case study and then how you would address and
hopefully solve the problems in it. A good guide to this can be the questions
at the end of each case study in the book.You are required to present your second case study paper to the
class.This should take no more than 5
minutes, and a short period of questions and answers will follow each
presentation.Each student will submit
a draft of their paper immediately before their presentation.This will be handed back with the
presentation grade on it.The final
copy of each Second Case Study Paper will then be handed in on the last day of
class.The tests and papers you hand in
for this course are to be typed or printed by ink-jet or laser computer
printers.Other computer printers can
be used provided that the output is of letter quality.Papers and tests should be double-spaced,
and preferably be in size 12 type in a standard font like Times New Roman.As this is a college level course, spelling,
command of the English language, and grammar are important elements of your
work, and will be taken into account during grading.Papers showing evidence of plagiarism will be dealt with harshly

Late Paper Policy:

All papers, such as the case study papers and the tests, are
due at the beginning of the specified class meeting.Papers turned in after this, at the discretion of the instructor,
will be docked at least one letter grade per day in arrears.Should a student have an emergency situation
such as illness or family emergency, if possible, they should contact the
Instructor prior to the class meeting where the paper is due, concerning the
nature of the emergency.All such
circumstances must be documented to the satisfaction of the Instructor.At his discretion the student may be allowed
to e-mail the paper, and the reduction in grade due to lateness may be waived
or reduced.I have had numerous
problems with e-mailed papers.They may
come in a format which is not readable by my software, or somehow the file gets
corrupted during transit.Dead Trees
tend to be a much more reliable basis for tests and term papers than are
electrons.Every semester your
Instructor has problems with students who apparently cannot handle or meet
deadlines.Eventually you will have a
boss, who being even more of a heartless tyrant than your Instructor is, will
not accept late assignments.You know
about the assignments for this course from the beginning of the semester.There is really no excuse for any late
papers.It is to your advantage to get
your assignments in on time.

Participation and Attendance:

For the class to be successful, all students must regularly
and meaningfully participate.Of course,
for this to occur, students must have completed all of the
assigned readings prior to each class.Students should be prepared to discuss the readings and add relevant
observations based upon their own experiences.Should participation not be present to the satisfaction of the
Instructor, he reserves the right to assign topics to individual students for
them to present in class.The
Instructor also reserves the right to call on any member of the class to have
them contribute to the discussion or to verify a suitable level of a student’s
preparedness.

Rather than considering you to be empty vessels which he
will seek to fill with knowledge and virtue by means of lecturing, your
Instructor believes that the course will be far more valuable, and much less
boring, if we adopt as much of a seminar format as is possible in a class of
this size.This means that you all must
be ready to carry your side of the work by being prepared to intelligently
discuss the course material extensively and in depth.Your Instructor has considerable experience in public
administration, politics and local government, and you also have a wealth of
experience to be tapped, and we shall make the most of it.

Students are expected to attend all of the classes.Since this class meets only once a week, and
is fast paced, repeated absences are going to seriously and negatively impact
your final grade in the course.If a
student misses more than two classes or is chronically tardy, the instructor
reserves the right to lower the participation portion of their final
grade.Absent and tardy students miss
class material and disrupt class discussion.Tardiness is strongly frowned upon.Chronic absence and/or tardiness may force the Instructor to
administratively withdraw the offending student from the course.

Deportment:

Unless otherwise cleared with the Instructor in advance, all
cell phones, pagers, and similar communication and entertainment devices shall
be turned off during the class meetings.It is expected that class members will conduct themselves according to
classically accepted norms of civility (as understood and exemplified by the
Instructor).Students who fail to
comport themselves in a courteous manner and are disruptive, obnoxious, or
abusive will find themselves physically and administratively removed from the
course and may face charges in the university judicial system.

Humor:

The Instructor reserves the right to have a sense of humor,
andto exercise it in class.

Cheating:

Cheating will not be tolerated in this course.This includes the offense of
plagiarism.If there is any doubt,
please cite the sources of your materials. Quotations need to be appropriately
noted in a standard format, such that the original source can be readily
determined.Works consulted for your
papers need to be included in a bibliography.at the back of the paper.Respect for intellectual property is one of the core values of this
University and also of your Instructor.It is also imperative that you do your own work.Those students caught committingplagiarism will at bare minimum forfeit all
participation points for the course, and will at least receive a 0 (zero) on
the assignment.At the discretion of
the Instructor, the student may also receive a grade of “F” in the course and
be turned over to the appropriate University authorities where expulsion is a
real possibility.The Instructor of
this course uses a number of effective methods to detect plagiarism.He is known to be sneaky, devious and adept
at the detection of such abuses of intellectual property.This word to the wise should be
sufficient.Your Instructor has also
frequently been involved in group projects where he and a minority of the
project team performed the lion’s share of the work.Reflecting on this, he expects each of you to work independently
and not copy, steal, or collude with others in the performance of the
assignments for this course.This is
not to preclude the laudable socializing and friendships that hopefully are
being formed as you trudge through the labyrinth of your academic career.These are among the most important aspects
of an education.I trust that you are
getting together outside of class for socializing and discussions.Just do your own work.Marked similarities of work indicates
possible cheating, and arouses my suspicions.Again, plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated.

Grading Structure:

Final letter grades will be based upon the following:

Grading scale:

90% to 100% = A

80% to 89% = B

70% to 79% = C

60% to 69% = D

0% to 59% = F

The scale in
use indicates that grading will not be done on a curve but as a percentage of
successfully completed work. The following list shows the percentage toward
your final grade for each graded exercise.The possible pop quizzes are counted toward the Participation and
Attendance part of your final grade.

Case Study Paper #110%10 Points

Case Study Paper #210%10 Points

Presentation of Case Study Paper #25%5 Points

Midterm Examination 30%30 Points

Final Examination 30%30 Points

Participation & Attendance
15%15 Points

Total100%100 Points

Statement Concerning Students with Disabilities:

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, NIU is
committed to

making reasonable accommodations for persons with documented

disabilities.Those
students with disabilities that may have some

impact on their coursework and for which they may require
accommodations

should notify the Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR)
on the

fourth floor of the Health Services Building.CAAR will assist students

in making appropriate accommodations with course
instructors.It is

important that CAAR and instructors be informed of any

disability-related needs during the first two weeks of the
semester.

Religious Holidays:

Your Instructor has no way of knowing a student’s religious
affiliation.Consequently, if
observances of your faith require your absence from a regularly scheduled class
meeting, a prudent student will notify the Instructor in advance so
accommodations can be appropriately worked out.

Miscellaneous:

The Instructor of this course was a champion non-traditional
student at this University.Consequently, he realizes that most students must work in order to
afford to attend NIU, and that crises and emergencies crop up in the lives of
students.Should these arise (and I
surely hope they do not), prompt discussion of the situation with the
Instructor is a Really Good Idea.There are very few of us in academia who have not had to deal with our
own “Semester From Hell” and often ways can be worked out to prevent total
disaster from coming about.Those
students who are on scholarships requiring the maintenance of acceptable grade
point averages are advised to contact the Instructor immediately should they
suspect that they might be in some difficulty in the course.This is especially true for those students
with athletic scholarships.Should any
of you have a personal crisis of one sort or another that adversely impacts
your performance in this course you are advised to see me immediately during my
office hours.I do not need to hear the
private details, but will try to work with you to salvage as much of your grade
in this course as is possible.It is
always much easier to make accommodations before the end of the semester.Due to norms of Justice and University
policies, any leniency or accommodation offered to one student must be
available to all the others as well.It
is virtually impossible to do much after the semester is ended.In the hopefully unlikely event that anyone
must be absent due to a death in the family or similar tragedy, please come
talk to me and give me some documentation such as a newspaper obituary and
problems relating with what you missed from class can usually be worked
out.

Tentative Weekly Schedule:

There will likely be at least one guest
lecturer during the semester.The
date(s) for these lectures have not been confirmed before the due date for this
syllabus.

Week 1 (January 18) Introduction to the course, explanation
of the syllabus, and overview of the subject matter.Start going over Chapter one in the Banovetz textbook.

Week 2 (January 25) Read and discuss the Appendix on ethics
in the Banovetz book and go over the case study number 21, “Fire or be Fired”
starting on page 220 of the Banovetz textbook.Then start on Chapter 1 in the Culhane textbook.

Week 9 (March 22):Recover from Spring Break.Finish Chapter 4 in the Culhane textbook.Discussion of the Case Study number 1, “Replacing the Police
Chief” starting on page 15 of the Banovetz textbook.I will go over this one so that you have a
better idea on how to handle public administration case studies.